Perceval, the Story of the Grail

After the grail episode, Chrétien introduces a series of scenes which bring the opening narratives of Perceval’s adventure to a partial conclusion, leading ultimately to a transition to Gawain’s section of the poem.

Chrétien begins this transition by providing some answers regarding the meaning of Perceval’s stay at the Fisher King’s castle and the question of his mother’s fate. Perceval rides through the adjoining forest, thinking that he might find some of the residents of the Fisher King’s castle, but instead finds a young woman weeping over a dead knight. On her asking where he has come from, he explains that he was a guest at a nearby castle, and she identifies it as the mysterious palace of the wounded Fisher King, in whose care reside the mystical relics of the bleeding lance and the grail. The woman is dumbfounded when Perceval reports that he didn’t ask any questions about the relics.

She demands Perceval’s name (which to this point in the story he has not yet told aloud), and on hearing it, she cries out that they know each other’s families. She is his cousin, and she immediately attributes the family’s woes to Perceval’s failure in regard to the grail: